Experts
John Irving
Author
Between America’s bullying sense of patriotism and its increasingly divided populace, it’s difficult for a writer to call the land home. Yet, insists John Irving, if he’s going to "pick on" his native country, he needs to do it from the inside. Read More
After the publication of the "World According to Garp" and numerous other bestsellers, John Irving does not really have to worry about his career. But, for those looking to break into the book-writing business today, Irving is far from envious. Read More
With its complete disregard for screenwriters and endless, seemingly luck-based, collaborative process, it’s a wonder anybody with literary sympathies can stomach cinema culture. Despite all this, John Irving wonders if westerns aren’t actually the greatest American gift to the storytelling tradition. Read More
With their richly textured characters, intensely visible milieux and wondrous storylines, no novels, says John Irving, have surpassed the splendor and sense of eminence of the nineteenth century novelists. Read More
The tension between John Irving, John Updike and Tom Wolfe was overplayed and misguided, says the novelist. The real sparks would fly, he says, if he ran into a few fellows well outside of the media’s purview. Read More
For John Irving, whose sprawling novels can take years to complete, one of the most significant challenges of writing is creating the sense that the words on the page are fresh from his mind. Read More
While John Irving may have never won a major championship as a wrestler, his experience in the sport has equipped him with the stamina and discipline necessary to struggle through the repetitions and revisions of novel writing. Read More
The famed novelist explains why even considering the act strikes many with a sense of anxiety and impending doom. Read More
For the novelist, obsessions, by definition, control you. Thus, try as he may to control the plot of his stories, a variety of recurring fixations inevitably work themselves in. Read More
For John Irving, the need for a daily ration of solitude was his strongest "pre-writing" moment as a child. Read More
When not interrupted by family and travel, the writer begins his work early, keeps at it for hours at a time, and does it every day. Read More
For even our best writers, penning that final sentence can be a difficult and tortuous affair. For John Irving, who never begins a novel without knowing its concluding words, this sentence took two decades to come into form. Read More
John Irving’s novels have earned him a National Book Award, sold tens of millions of copies and have been translated into over thirty languages. Yet, far from affording him a sense of security, literary fame has made the fresh challenge and anonymity of beginning a new book all the more exhilarating. Read More
Big Think sits down with the author of twelve novels, including "Last Night in Twisted River." Read More
About John Irving
John Irving is the author of twelve books, including “The World According to Garp,” “A Prayer For Owen Meany,” and most recently, “Last Night on Twisted River.” Over his career he has won a National Book Award, an Academy Award for his adaptation of “The Cider House Rules,” and many other honors, and has been translated into over thirty languages. A former competitive wrestler, he splits his time between Vermont and Montreal.